The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars of the Sengoku period following the collapse of the Ashikaga shogunate. Ieyasu became the shōgun, and the Tokugawa clan governed Japan from Edo Castle in the eastern city of Edo (Tokyo) along with the daimyō lords of the samurai class.^[21]^[22]^[19] The Tokugawa shogunate organized Japanese society under the strict Tokugawa class system and banned most foreigners under the isolationist policies of Sakoku to promote political stability. The Tokugawa shoguns governed Japan in a feudal system, with each daimyō administering a han (feudal domain), although the country was still nominally organized as imperial provinces. Under the Tokugawa shogunate, Japan experienced rapid economic growth and urbanization, which led to the rise of the merchant class and Ukiyo culture.

The Tokugawa shogunate declined during the Bakumatsu period from 1853 and was overthrown by supporters of the Imperial Court in the Meiji Restoration in 1868. The Empire of Japan was established under the Meiji government, and Tokugawa loyalists continued to fight in the Boshin War until the defeat of the Republic of Ezo at the Battle of Hakodate in June 1869.

Government[edit]

Shogunate and domains[edit]

The bakuhan system (bakuhan taisei 幕藩体制) was the feudal political system in the Edo period of Japan.^[7] Baku is an abbreviation of bakufu, meaning "military government"—that is, the shogunate. The han were the domains headed by daimyō.^[7] Beginning from Ieyasu's appointment as shogun in 1603, but especially after the Tokugawa victory in Osaka in 1615, various policies were implemented to assert the shogunate's control, which severely curtailed the daimyos' independence.^[23] The number of daimyos varied but stabilized at around 270.^[23]

The bakuhan system split feudal power between the shogunate in Edo and the daimyōs with domains throughout Japan.^[31] The shōgun and lords were all daimyōs: feudal lords with their own bureaucracies, policies, and territories.^[31] Provinces had a degree of sovereignty and were allowed an independent administration of the han in exchange for loyalty to the shōgun, who was responsible for foreign relations, national security,^[31] coinage, weights, measures, and transportation.^[23]

The shōgun also administered the most powerful han, the hereditary fief of the House of Tokugawa, which also included many gold and silver mines.^[31] Towards the end of the shogunate, the Tokugawa clan held around 7 million koku of land (天領 tenryō), including 2.6–2.7 million koku held by direct vassals, out of 30 million in the country.^[32] The other 23 million koku were held by other daimyos.^[32]

The number of han (roughly 270) fluctuated throughout the Edo period.^[33] They were ranked by size, which was measured as the number of koku of rice that the domain produced each year.^[32] One koku was the amount of rice necessary to feed one adult male for one year. The minimum number for a daimyō was ten thousand koku;^[33] the largest, apart from the shōgun, was more than a million koku.^[32]

the (hatamoto 旗本) had the privilege to directly approach the shogun;^[32]

bannermen

the (gokenin 御家人) did not have the privilege of the shogun's audience.^[32]

housemen

of the Mito Domain^[46]

Tokugawa Mitsukuni

of the Mito Domain^[47]

Tokugawa Nariaki

of the Hitotsubashi branch

Tokugawa Mochiharu

of the Tayasu branch.^[48]

Tokugawa Munetake

of the Aizu branch.^[49]

Matsudaira Katamori

born into the Tayasu branch, adopted into the Hisamatsu-Matsudaira of Shirakawa.^[50]

Matsudaira Sadanobu

of the Hitotsubashi branch.

Tokugawa Mochiharu

and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 48943301

Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric

. (1974). Treasures Among Men: The Fudai Daimyo in Tokugawa Japan. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-01655-0; OCLC 185685588

Bolitho, Harold

Haga, Tōru, translated by . Pax Tokugawana: The Cultural Flowering of Japan, 1603–1853. Tokyo: Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture. ISBN 978-4-86658-148-4

Juliet Winters Carpenter

Totman, Conrad. The Collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1862–1868. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1980.

Totman, Conrad. Politics in the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1600–1843. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967.

Waswo, Ann Modern Japanese Society 1868–1994

The Center for East Asian Cultural Studies Meiji Japan Through Contemporary Sources, Volume Two 1844–1882

Tokugawa shogunate